Catherine MacLellan will be contemplating Canadian greatness for the CBC's Great Canadian Song Quest
November brings with it rains and winds that will no doubt chill us to the bone as we refuse to don our winter coats for just a few more weeks. Conversely, at the halls November brings some artists that will warm your heart and soul.
Swell Season, appearing tonight at Massey Hall, is like a hot cup of cocoa – a delicious treat you might take in while sitting around the fireplace. The duo’s latest album, Strict Joy, came out just last week and already critics are singing its praises: SPIN magazine gave it four stars and called it “a glorious bummer.” (If you’re not yet acquainted with the mythology surrounding this band, here’s your crash course.) And if you can’t make it out to the show this evening, we have a consolation prize – you can stream the album in its entirety right here.
Rob Thomas is well-known as the lead singer of Matchbox 20, but he has also worked with Santana (he wrote “Smooth,” which earned him three Grammy Awards), Willie Nelson, Mick Jagger, and Marc Anthony. Tomorrow night at Massey Hall, he’ll be showcasing his esteemed career as a solo artist. While Swell Season seems to have the market cornered on passionate love, both new found and recently eroded, Thomas’s specialty is the everyday moment between longtime partners. (He is the reliable, soothing cup of tea in our array of cozy autumn analogies.) His latest album, Cradlesong, features the single “Her Diamonds,” a tune about his wife’s struggle with an autoimmune disease. Of the song and the subject matter Thomas says: “There’s an incredible amount of sadness that comes with something like that… I’m writing a song about how people deal with hard times, and that hard time is universal, that hard time can be anything.”
And if, after all that, you still need something to warm you up, CBC Radio 2 has announced both the locations and the singer-songwriters for the Great Canadian Song Quest, their Canada-wide contest in which selected musicians immortalise places across the country in song. Though we may be a teeny bit biased, we are charmed to note that PEI native Catherine MacLellan – who plays Glenn Gould Studio in March – will be writing and singing a song about Singing Sand Beach on the Island, whose sand squeaks as you walk upon it.
Stefania Paterak is the Programming Coordinator for Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall.
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